Thursday, May 10, 2018

Creeping Charlie

Weed or ground cover? Invasive lawn pest, or salad green? Kill it, or pot it?

Creeping Charlie, aka ground-ivy, run-away-robin, catsfoot, etc. Also Glechoma hederacea. Not an ivy; a mint.

When I Googled Creeping Charlie, the first screen of links were mostly to "How to kill" sites, but one, instead, had a wild beer recipe. In my mixed, half-wild lawn, it fills in the gaps where I've ripped out grass-poisoning hairy catsear, and holds back the stubborn buttercups; I'll let it be for now.

The plant creeps through the lawn, with occasional stems standing to 5 or 6 inches tall. It doesn't mind mowing.
The flowers grow in clusters of two or three near the tip of the plant.

Each pollinated flower can produced up to four seeds, which are dispersed by the stem bending over and depositing the ripe seeds in the ground adjacent to the parent plant, although ants may carry the seeds further. (Wikipedia)

A vast improvement over the catsear, which produces thousands (up to 6000 per rosette!) of wind-blown seeds that germinate quickly in the neighbour's lawn as well as mine.

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